What is the objective of a market research online community?

In the age of constant market disruption, business leaders have found that their greatest competitive strategy is to have a direct relationship with their most valuable asset, their customers. A market research online community serves to gather a group of trusted customers who have willingly opted in to engage in research activities including quantative and qualitative studies on an ongoing basis.

A market research online community leverages various research tools and methodologies while enabling a seamless experience for participants. Respondents can access research activities while they are on the go through a mobile device, an app, or in the comfort of their homes. While a crop of agile solutions has allowed for a surge of quantitative studies, market research online community platforms merges together the best quantitative and qualitative solutions so that businesses can aggregate the most complete picture of the customer.

Advantages of Online Communities

The advantages of leveraging an online community platform are mutually beneficial for both the business and the consumer.

AN MROC Allows For Businesses To:

Conduct fast and efficient research

Gather holistic and in-depth responses

Connect all your customer data on one platform

Launch and receive same day survey results

Interact with participants on an intimate level

Collect both quantitative and qualitative data

Gather long-term data on the same participants

Access to all audience types for easy segmentation

Benchmark customer and non-customer data

Doing research with retained audiences

And Customers to:

Participate in the most relevant research projects

Outlet for the customer to provide feedback

Interface with likeminded brand advocates

Have a hub to learn and discover more about the brand

See their feedback implemented into products

Receive participation incentives and discounts

The Online Community Approach in Market Research

Diary Studies

Photo and Video Uploads

Member Forums

Crowdsource Ideas

Live Chats

Realtime chat-based discussions

Quick Polls

Quick Polls

Surveys

Survey Agnostic

Disucssions

Discussions

The Fuel Cycle Community Unique Features

Panels

Mobile Responsive

Mobile App

FC Live

One-on-One Interviews

Focus Groups

Moderated usability testing

Screenshare

Simple Communication Tools

Built in email creation

Push notifications (mobile)

Qual Reporting

Automated coding

Sentiment analysis

Image intelligence

FCX Marketplace

Research Automation

Video Research

System 1

Prediction Markets

Geolocation

Large-scale Qual

FCX Analytics

The Types of Online Communities

Pop-up or short-term communities:

These communities are inherently meant to be short-term and designed to be quick, agile, and cost-efficient. Projects can run anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months and anywhere from 50-250 people can be on call if needed.

Continuous online communities

This type of community is meant for ongoing and longitudinal studies with a core group of brand consumers. These types of communities can retain anywhere from hundreds of customers to thousands and typically run on an annual contract.

What’s the Best MROC for You?

Not every market research online community is built the same. Here are a few things to consider when choosing the correct research solution for your business needs.

Delivers a Seamless and Engaging Respondent Experience

Focuses on a Mobile-first Approach

Offers a Mix of Qual and Quant Research Capabilities

Supports the best Tools & API Integrations

Streamlined Back-end Reporting

Robust Member Management Services and Functionality

Flexible Service Model Options

Automated and Diverse Incentive Programs

Transparent Cost Structure

Easily scalable to fit every audience need and type

Highly Customizable to Brand Guidelines

24/7 Support

Merges and consolidates multiple customer data sources

Enterprise-Grade Privacy and Security

GDPR

California Consumer Privacy Act Ready

Robust PII Management

EU-US Privacy Shield Certified

Swiss-US Privacy Shield Certified

Reliable and convenient access to desired respondents

Easy Segmentation

Not every market research online community is built the same.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding to onboard a MROC vendor:

Having a quota and sticking by it

Ensuring onboarding goes smoothly

Encouraging participation and boosting engagement

Choosing the right software

Increasing engagement

One Platform. Better Insights. More Impact.

Fuel Cycle empowers the entire organization with a deep, on-demand market understanding to solve the hardest research problems businesses face. Don’t settle for disconnected products, trackers, and tools — take control of continuous research, fully integrated, in one solution.